Performance is more than numbers on a spreadsheet or a certificate on the wall. It’s about what a home is made of, how it breathes, and the way it makes us feel.

This is the conversation I’ll be bringing to the ADNZ Conference this year — and one I’ll continue in an upcoming evening talk on regenerative design. Because what we build now must respond to more than the climate — it must respond to culture, creativity, and care.

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Insulation is a good example. A wall made of straw or wool might carry the same R-value as one filled with petrochemical foam — but their stories couldn’t be more different. One locks carbon into the walls and breathes naturally; the other might off-gas for years and require high-energy manufacturing.

Knowing your materials, their origins, and their full life cycles allows us to design buildings that are truly regenerative

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Similarly, a timber frame might be H1.2 treated out of habit — yet if you select the right species, from the right region, you may not need chemical treatment at all. Knowing your materials, their origins, and their full life cycles allows us to design buildings that are truly regenerative — not just operationally efficient, but restorative from cradle to cradle.

We tend to separate practicality from poetry, but good design should hold both. A home that performs well should also nourish the soul. After all, we don’t just live in our houses — we rest, connect, and raise children in them. We return to them after hard days. We grow old in them.

A high-performance home can be beautiful. It can have textured walls finished in clay, not just paint. It can smell of charred timber and beeswax. It can carry the scent of place and the feeling of being held by something natural, something timeless.

These choices don’t detract from performance — they are performance. Natural finishes regulate humidity. Breathable walls reduce condensation risk. Local materials reduce transport emissions. These aren’t indulgent details — they’re intelligent ones.

Nature has been building resilient, circular systems far longer than we have. It doesn’t produce waste. Everything becomes something else. Our homes can follow this model too — if we design with intention.

Nature has been building resilient, circular systems far longer than we have.

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This is what we mean when we talk about a new kind of performance home. Not just one that survives the elements or meets the standard — but one that belongs to its site, supports its inhabitants, and gives back more than it takes.

Because in the end, numbers alone don’t make a place feel like home.